Vikram and the Vampire: Or, Tales of Hindu Devilry

LibraryThing Review

User Review - reading_fox - LibraryThing

Dull. Windy and with little point. Certainly way to purple for any kind of charm. Nominally this is supposed to be the basis for all the oriental fairy tales of the likes of Aladin and 1001 nights. I ...Read full review

LibraryThing Review

User Review - pmtracy - LibraryThing

Vikram and the Vampire is a number of stories within a story. It is an old Hindu folk tale that was translated by Sir Richard R. Burton from the original Sanskrit. He’s possibly more well known for ...Read full review

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Page 84 - ... a barren wife may be superseded by another in the eighth year; she whose children are all dead, in the tenth; she who brings forth only daughters, in the eleventh; she who speaks unkindly, without delay; but she who, though afflicted with illness, is beloved and virtuous, must never be disgraced, though she may be superseded by another wife with her own consent.

Page 187 - No other effectual duty is known for virtuous women, at any time after the death of their lords, except casting themselves into the same fire. As long as a woman (in her successive transmigrations) shall decline burning herself, like a faithful wife, on the same fire with her deceased lord, so long shall she be not exempted from springing again to life in the body of some female animal.

Page 40 - Now, brother," said the dying man, "Look to my children dear; Be good unto my boy and girl, No friends else have they here: To God and you I recommend My children dear this day; But little while be sure we have Within this world to stay. "You must be father and mother both, And uncle all in one; God knows what will become of them, When I am dead and gone.

Page 162 - Be pleased not to do this," she replied; " it will be sinful, and it will involve me in the guilt and punishment of shedding blood; hence I shall be miserable in this world and in that to be." "Thy blandishments," he replied, "have pierced my heart, and the consuming thought of parting from thee has burnt up my body, and memory and understanding have been destroyed by this pain; and from excess of love I have no sense of right or wrong. But if thou wilt make me a promise, I will live again.

Page 28 - NO. CCCCLX. posture, began in solemn tones to speak as follows : ' In short, the history of the matter is, that three men were born in this same good city of Ujjayani, in the same lunar mansion, in the same division of the great circle described upon the ecliptic, and in the same period of time. You, the first, were born in the house of a king. The second was an oilman's son, who was slain by the third, a jogi or anchorite, who kills all he can, wafting the sweet scent of human sacrifice to the nostrils...

Page 202 - ... where the clouds pour the heaviest showers ; in the cold season, let him wear humid vesture ; and let him increase by degrees the austerity of his devotion. Then, having reposited his holy fires, as the law directs, in his mind, let him live without external fire, without a mansion, wholly silent, feeding on roots and fruit.

Page 54 - Prayers, penances, and sacrifices are supposed to possess an inherent and actual value, in no degree depending upon the disposition or motive of the person who performs them. They are drafts upon Heaven, for which the Gods cannot refuse payment. The worst men, bent upon the worst designs, have in this manner obtained power which has made them formidable to the Supreme Deities themselves, and rendered an Avatar or Incarnation of Veeshnoo the Preserver, necessary.

Page 55 - I propose to ask thee a number of questions, concerning which we will, if it seems fit to thee, make this covenant : — " Whenever thou answerest me, either compelled by fate or entrapped by my cunning into so doing, or thereby gratifying thy vanity and conceit, I leave thee and return to my favorite...

Page 234 - And the success of his book had quite effaced from the Brahman mind the holy man's failure in bringing up his children. He followed up this by adding to his essay on education a twentieth tome, containing recipes for the "Reformation of Prodigals." The learned and reverend father received his sons with open arms. He had heard from his brother-in-law that the youths were qualified to support themselves, and when informed that they wished to make a public experiment of their science, he exerted himself,...